Where does the word honeymoon come from?

Answer 1

The moon part of honeymoon stands for one moon or one month. The early tradition was a year or wedded bliss before a soldier had to return to way. Soldiers were required to take ayear off to make more soldiers. That got cut to one month over the years.

Today, the tradition of a honeymoon following nuptials has, long way from its original meaning. Today's "happy ending" to the wedding event is a far cry from its much different beginnings. The word honeymoon has its roots in the Norse word "hjunottsmanathr" which was anything but blissful. Northern European history describes the abduction of a bride from neighboring village. It was imperative, that the abductor, the husband to be, take his bride to be into hiding for period of time. His friends assured his and her safe keeping and kept their whereabouts unknown. Once the bride's family gave up their search, the bride groom returned to his people. This folkloric explanation presumably is the origin of today's honeymoon, for its original meaning meant hiding.

The Scandinavian word for honeymoon is derived, in part, from an ancient Northern European custom in which newlyweds, for the first month of their married life, drank a daily cup of honeyed wine called mead. The ancient practices of kidnaping of bride and drinking the honeyed wine date back to the history of Atilla, king of the Asiatic Huns from A.D. 433 to A.D. 453.

So that leaves us with the question of where the "moon" in the word "honeymoon" originates. One piece of folklore relates that the origin of the word moon comes from a cynical inference. To the Northern Europeans the terms referred to the body's monthly cycle and, its combination with honey, suggested that not all moon's of married life were as sweet as the first. British prose writers and poets, in the 16th and 17th centuries, often made use of the Nordic interpretation of honeymoon as a waxing and waning of marital affection.

As it is with many of our wedding customs, this one also has an alternative explanation of its origin. The term "honeymoon," we are told, comes from an old northern European custom in which newlyweds would, for a month, consume a daily cup of mead, a brew that is made from honey.

Certainly we have, long way and there is a vast difference between the original meaning of honeymoon and its present-day connotation. The newer version is, of course, the more pleasant one!

There is no controversy or confusion about the origens of the word except the fact that Wikipedians posted false info for years and the Wikipedia lies wond die.

Wikipedia simply made up etymology for words and quoted false info for years.

Answer 2

The drunken bridegroom story is an urban myth and has no truth to it. Webster's dates the word "honeymoon" to 1546, well after the 4,000 years ago the "honey mead" story was supposed to have happened. The explanation of "honeymoon" is that the first month or so of any marriage is the "sweetest," free of the stresses and strains which later try every marriage. I say "month or so," but there's no evidence that the "moon" in "honeymoon" has anything to do with the lunar cycle. A more plausible interpretation, first proposed by Samuel Johnson, is that "moon" really refers to the waxing and waning of the moon. In this somewhat cynical scenario, the "moon" of marriage is full at its start, leaving only the natural waning to follow. Of course, the moon always waxes full again, so hope springs eternal. Can't tell you about any honeymoon locations in India, but perhaps you should post this as a separate question and put it in the weddings section.

Answer 3

The Oxford English Dictionary offers no etymology at all, but dates the word back to the 16th century:

“ The first month after marriage, when there is nothing but tenderness and pleasure" (Samuel Johnson); originally having no reference to the period of a month, but comparing the mutual affection of newly-married persons to the changing moon which is no sooner full than it begins to wane; now, usually, the holiday spent together by a newly-married couple, before settling down at home. ”

One of the youngest citations in the Oxford English Dictionary indicates that, while today honeymoon has a positive meaning, the word was actually a cynical reference to the inevitable waning of love like a phase of the moon. This, the first literary reference to the honeymoon was penned in 1552, in Richard Huloet's Abecedarium Anglico Latinum. Huleot writes:

“ Hony mone, a term proverbially applied to such as be newly married, which will not fall out at the first, but th'one loveth the other at the beginning excedingly, the likelyhood of their exceadinge love appearing to aswage, ye which time the vulgar people call the hony mone. ”

According to some sources[weasel words], the honeymoon is a relic of marriage by capture, based on the practice of the husband going into hiding with his wife to avoid reprisals from her relatives, with the intention that the woman would be pregnant by the end of the month.

It has also been said[weasel words] that the origins of this word date back to the times of Babylon. In order to increase the virility and fertility of the newly-weds, the father of the bride would provide his son in law with all the mead (a honey-based drink) he could drink during the first month of the marriage.

Given that the English word is only four hundred years old, direct attribution to Babylon is questionable, though often repeated.[1] The custom of drinking mead after a wedding for a month was also a medieval custom, however, and in practice at the time the word first appeared. [citation needed][original research?]

Other possible explanations of the word honeymoon have to do with the date that weddings traditionally took place. Weddings once commonly took place upon the Summer solstice both for religious reasons earlier on and also for the practical reason that it was the time between the main planting and harvesting of crops. As it was at this time of year that honey was first harvested, it is possible that this is the source.[citation needed][original research?]

In many parts of Europe it was traditional to supply a newly married couple with enough mead for a month, ensuring happiness and fertility. From this practice we get honeymoon or, as the French say, lune de miel[2][3]

Satirists have said that a "Honeymoon salad" is "lettuce (let us) alone with no dressing".

There are many calques of the word honeymoon from English into other languages. The Welsh word for honeymoon is mis mêl (honey month). In Arabic it is shahr el 'assal also translated to honey month. The Spanish word for honeymoon is la luna de miel (the moon of honey), and the Italian luna di miele (same translation).

Answer 4

It actually comes from an old tradition where the father of a bride had to supply her husband with mead for one lunar month. Mead is made from honey, hence the expression honey moon.

Answer 5

you've come to the right place! I was the man who coined the term!! I will tell you what it means right now:

It means...

Woops! There's my train, gotta run!!!